ECHL Reading Royals

Royals Take the Opening Salvo in Evansville, 2-1

Published on December 19, 2014 under ECHL (ECHL)
Reading Royals News Release


Evansville, IN - The Reading Royals (win, 14-9-1-130) of the ECHL, affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League and the Lehigh Valley Phantoms of the American Hockey League, defeated the Evansville Icemen (loss, 8-12-1-219), 2-1, at the Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana.

In the first trip of the season to Evansville's Ford Center, the Royals scored first on a hot-bullet snapper off the rush by defenseman Adam Comrie and then built a 2-0 lead on what proved to be the fifth game winner of the year for David Marshall. The only blemish on goaltender Martin Ouellette's performance tonight wasn't really a blemish at all-just an unfortunate bounce off a teammate from an extremely sharp angle with 55.1 seconds left in regulation. The Royals and Oullette then held off the Icemen down the stretch to with for the fifth time in the last six games-and push the team's historical record at Ford Center in Evansville over the past three seasons to 5-1-0-0.

First Period (1-0, Reading) 6:10 (1-0, Reading) Reading Goal Comrie (7); Mullane and Watters (one-time snap shot from high slot) Reading struck early off the rush when Ian Watters forced a puck down the left wing side. Pat Mullane tracked the puck down and slipped a saucer back-up into the high slot where the second wave in the form of defenseman Adam Comrie was coming with speed. Comrie stepped in and sniped a hot bullet from the high slot that beat goaltender Chris Driedger to the glove side for Comrie's seventh of the season.

Second Period (2-0, Reading) 12:58 (2-0, Reading) Reading Goal Marshall (9); Labelle and Wiles (snap shot from left circle) The Royals stretched the lead to two immediately after killing the third of what were back-to-back-to-back power play chances for the Icemen in the second period of play. Olivier Labelle stepped out of the penalty box and into a three-on-one rush with Sean Wiles and David Marshall into the offensive end. Marshall carried down the right wing side and fed Labelle, who was charging into the left circle off the rush. Labelle heeled his one timer, but Wiles tracked down the loose puck below the goal line and fed the puck back to Marshall who came across to find an open seam in the left circle. Marshall drilled a hot snapper that beat Driedger to the short side for his ninth of the year-and what would prove to be his fifth game winner of the season.

Third Period (2-1 Reading) 19:05 (2-1, Reading) Evansville Goal Hobbs (4); Rutkowski and Wong (deflection of shot from right wing corner) After repeatedly being rejected by great stops by goaltender Martin Ouellette-particular down the stretch when the Icemen opened the flood gates-Evansville finally solved the Royals' goalie on a a somewhat flukey goal. With time ticking down and the goaltender pulled (and a full bore aggressive attack underway), the puck was shot out of the right wing corner from directly along the goal line. The puck was high in the air and headed to the middle of the ice and (unfortunately for Reading) grazed off one of the Reading defenders and deflected into the net at an extremely steep angle on the short side.

But that would be it for the Icemen, as the Royals, who had a couple of golden chances to nail things down with an empty netter-but came up empty, held on for the team's sixth road win of the year (6-3-1-0).

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